Patriots vs. Rams Preview

St. Louis Rams (2-4) @ New England Patriots (4-2)- 1 PM ET

The two most surprising results in the NFL last weekend were just how easily St. Louis and New England dispatched Dallas and Denver in blowout wins. Almost all of the experts had written the Patriots off and nobody expected the Rams to even compete with Dallas, yet here we are with both teams looking to keep the momentum going. For the Patriots they have to hope last week’s offensive outburst was not just a result of the Broncos suspect defence. The much maligned Matt Cassel came through with his best performance of the season, going 18/24 for 185 yards and three touchdowns. He also earned his first AFC Offensive Player of the Week honors, which I find a little hard to believe. But anyone who saw the smile on his face after that game or heard him described as a “high school” quarterback on ESPN has to feel good for him. The NFL is a week to week league though and Cassel’s performance will be quickly forgotten if he cannot deliver on a repeat performance.
The Rams are a difficult football team to gauge, after being blown out in their first four games they fired their head coach, and interim coach Jim Haslett as led the club to consecutive wins over Dallas and Washington. It says right here those two wins on paper are more impressive than any of the Patriots four wins this season. Last weekend Steven Jackson exploded for 160 yards and three touchdowns on 25 attempts. With safety Rodney Harrison out for the year it should be interesting to see how the Patriots safeties will be able to help in shutting down the running game. Besides the Rams rushing attack the Patriots other concern would have to be their zone blitz packages. The Rams are a very quick defence and will try to throw Cassel off his game. Last week Cassel was sacked six times and knocked to the ground twelve times, which is an awful lot in a blowout win.
The Patriots will be welcoming the Rams into Gillette Stadium for the first time, the two teams have split their last ten games against each other, but the Patriots have won the last two games dating back to Super Bowl XXXVI. The Patriots also hold a 12-game winning streak against NFC opponents; look for that trend to continue this weekend.
Patriots 27-23

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Last post (s) by Nich Hall

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